New Zealand Weekly Update #67

28th of January until 04th of February 2024

Approximate reading time: 7 minutes

Lets get it started

Happy days and sunny days in Wanaka. Good morning folks, it’s monday morning here in Wanaka. Its bloddy windy, blue sky and sun is shining. Perfect morning for some blog updates and to have a look back. And finally, the whole team is on full strength in Wanaka and I am so happy working with great people. Since without those people, their support and their energy and joy each and every day it would be quite a challenge to stay. I even reckon that without those people I would already be gone by now. But since New Zealand is way too beautiful and special, I will stay and I am working on my residency. It might be just a matter of time by now. In two days, I have to join an english test and if everything goes well, I might be able to apply for residency soon! Exciting news! Fingers crossed, Kiwi mode activated 🙂
And for now, I will try to rest a little bit more since Wanaka Challenge is ahead and I feel that my body needs a little more rest. The last weeks have been pretty busy and full of training, hikes, nature, work. And I remember a quote a friend would send me a couple of days ago. The most important part of progress is having a break from time to time. So i took the opportunity to catch up with some friends last week for some BBQ, some talks, for just being a little more social again since during the Triathlos training I would be mostly by myself.

Cardrona to Cromwell

Back on track with Tony Malony. Time for hiking. Time for overnight adventures. Time for nature. Our first idea, kayaking to Mou Waho island, was postponed since the wind in Wanaka and area around is way too crazy at the moment. Fingers crossed for Wanaka challenge though. So we would start saturday afternoon, since a friend of ours, Timi, had to work until 1PM. Driving with the car towards Cardrona and Snowfarm. Ready, steady, action!
First quite flat, later a little more steep uphill towards Tuohys saddle. And for whatever reason, I felt pretty tired after 30 minutes. heavily breathing, sweating. My body just felt pretty heavy and I was about to turn around. But I just kept going, nice and easy, had some breaks from time to time and tried to enjoy the view as much as possible. Pisa Range area is quite exposed, it is quite windy, remote, lonely. But still beautiful. Backcountry hiking close to Wanaka so to say. After 1.45 h , we arrived at Meg Hut and had a break. Peanut butter, muesli bars and water. Quite a nice small hut though, 8 beds, stunning nature around, a little creek to refill your water bottle. And we kept going. All the way to Deep Creek hut. Up the hills again, with some kind of ice rain (in middle of summer time, crazy as!). And following the track. And you have to be very carefull since there are heaps of sharp plants on the ground. Tony and me would directly walk into some of those and this is painful as! But stop whining, keep going. And after 4 hours, we arrived at Deep Creek Hut. Old but gold! 6 beds, semi-comfortable mattresses. Music. Tea time (withc chinese tea from Timi, all the way from China to New Zealand) and some card games. Good company, good talks, good day! And some very windy moments in the middle of the night. The hut was almost shaking! Up again at 8AM, breakfast and all the way to Cromwell. Hiking slighly uphill first.

Being exposed to strong winds, I almost lost my hiking poles and my cap! Just to hike all the way down to Cromwell with some steep sections, water crossings, sheeps and cows around. And on the way down we would meet some people walking up the mountain – good luck guys, way to go! Most of the times, I would walk a little in front of Toni and Timi, just to be by myself, being with my mind, the nature, my thoughts. And it reminded me quite a lot of my hike back in spain 2022. Even if you are with company, you are still allowed to hike alone, to enjoy alone and to arrive together. Finally, we made it all the way down. Unfortunatelly, the main street was 5 km ahead. And we would need to hitchhike back, since this was not a loop track 🙂

After one hour, we finally arrived at the main streed. And it took us one more hour to catch a ride back. My first hitchhiking experience in New Zealand – and it turned out, that it was one of my customers, who took us with her all the way back to Wanaka 🙂
All in all, a quite challenging, beautiful, remote hike. Beautiful huts, exposed sections, windy as! Could be done in a day, but staying in of of those huts is quite an adventure itself 🙂

What else to say?

Gameday wednesday. Lets get this english test done and get ready for residency. Fortunatelly, I have a little bit of time left to apply and to save some money. The residency itself is more than 4000 NZD! Crazy expensive and the english test and verification of my qualification is extra on top. Well, this is how we do it here in New Zealand. Money might be important, but being happy and surrounded by this amazing nature is even more important 🙂
And there might be some more exciting news to come, just have to work on it a little bit more and will keep you updated 🙂
Have a good one, speak soon.

Your DIngyInternational
Felix